GD:NIP #9: LUST's Posterwall for the 21st Century

The merger of personalized messages and automated design is the subject of LUST’s Poster Wall for the 21st Century (2007/2011), a projected scrim of ever-changing posters. Using local websites to scavenge images and texts, computer algorithms produce designs for up to 600 posters a day. Viewers can send messages to a computer, which are then incorporated into the works. QR (Quick Response) codes readable by smartphone cameras relay viewers to websites where these customized designs are stored and can be retrieved. The wall itself is a layered palimpsest of projected posters, older messages sinking to the bottom, new ones surfacing on top. In a millennial twist, the LUST wall display responds to the movements of passersby. While the modern poster strove to capture and immobilize the viewer’s gaze, this future poster senses and follows you. It compels you to provide your own message. In this way, it is the quintessential empty vessel, waiting to be filled with content—waiting to follow your lead. —AB